Marcus Garvey

The Marcus Garvey Library, [19 June 2003]

(Some controversial aspects of Garvey’s work have been
raised in the NGs. This article presents some of the challenges that
he faced. Many in Diaspora will find much to think about. For a brief
biography, see http://www.jamweb.com/marcus.htm)

The work and philosophy of The Right Excellent Dr. Marcus Mosiah Garvey
represents many things to many people. Whatever people may think of
him or his efforts for the race, Dr. Garvey had: One God,One
Aim,One Destinyfor his life. That aim was the Redemption
of Africa. To that he subsumed everything, even his personal life.

The work and philosophy of Dr. Garvey is therefore a paradigm for the
intentions he held with respect to Africa and the people that were
dispersed from its’ shores. Some left independently others were
brutally removed for economic gain and exploitation.

Within the paradigm Dr. Garvey furthered; for the continuum of his
work and the future of the race; are the elements of redemption and
uplift of his race. In order to make this a living reality Dr. Garvey
established the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African
Communities League (ANIA-ACL) in 1914 in Jamaica.

Through the UNIA-ACL Dr. Garvey conveyed the view, like other African
Leaders and organizations before him, that until Africa is free and
redeemed, not only in name but dignity, no one would be free, Black or
White. Dr. Garvey held the belief of the Brotherhood of
Man. Through this precept he attempted to convey that whatever
ones’ race we are all bound together by the Creator which is
Spirit. The Creator has purpose. That purpose does not include being
made a slave or subjugated for any circumstances.

The Right Excellent Dr. Marcus Mosiah Garvey was born in Jamaica at
St. Anns Bay located on the North Coast of the Island on August 17,
1887. He deceased on June 10, 1940 in Fulham London, England. Many see
him as a prophet. Rastafarians liken him to John the Baptist because
he conveyed through his utterances and example the sacredness of
maintaining the continuity and nationhood of the vast Continent and
its people wherever they are on the globe.

Circumstances surrounding his passing have never been investigated or
made public hence leaving an air of mystery and concern about the
details of his decease.

Racial violence is not new to Britain. One has only to examine the
period during World War I and the attacks in British seaport towns on
Black servicemen and seamen. A representative was sent to Europe, by
the US President, from the Tuskegee Institute to investigate
complaints from Black Servicemen regarding racial bias from both the
British and American military.

In addition the international eugenics movement had an impact on the
military through its’ emphasis on Racial Hygiene. This
encouraged racial separation and I.Q. testing by the US military. The
influence of eugenics in the military during WWI was based on the
faulty premise of the innate inferiority of Blacks and the supposed
superiority of Whites. The basis of this was the inappropriate use of
the science of ethnology and other adverse propaganda.

The military of both countries regulated Black servicemen to degrading
and demeaning work on grounds of race. Men directly from the African
Continent were termed Natives and; based on British
Constitutional law and policy; excluded from access to equal
opportunities with white British servicemen. African Americans were
excluded from access to equal opportunities based on Jim Crow
laws in the United States. Their status was simply that of
niggers serving in the US military.

Lack of access to hospitals and medical attention led to a
disproportionate number of deaths amongst Black servicemen. Those
Blacks who became officers were noncommissioned and responsible only
for Black Servicemen. Initially; when they were finally allowed to
enter the war effort; Black Nurses could only provide medical care to
Black servicemen.

The Garvey Movement, particularly the Universal African Black Cross
Nurses, contributed to the health and social care of Black servicemen
returning from World War I. On returning, to the US, African American
servicemen were lynched and degraded North and South by many whites
because of their race.

Dr. Marcus Garvey was influenced from the onset in his early
humanitarian work in Jamaica by the efforts of Dr. Robert Love. Love
was born in 1835 in Nassau the Bahamas and deceased in 1914; the same
year that Marcus Garvey founded the Universal Negro Improvement and
Conservation Association and African Communities Imperial League. The
organization came to be known popularly as the Universal Negro
Improvement Association or UNIA.

Dr. Love was a keen and active supporter of the dignity and uplift of
Black women, particularly young Black girls. He held the view that a
race could progress no further than the dignity and esteem of their
women and girls. When planted the seeds of dignity and self-esteem
must be supported, as well as cultivated, in order to develop and flow
within the woman and young girl.

At given opportunities this process, hopefully, will extend and be
shared with family and others; including the society and culture that
nurtured the growth; ultimately to be passed from generation to
generation and age to age thus forming a timeless: foundation; beauty
and integrity for the: unborn; girls and women of the race.

Both Dr Love and Dr. Garvey realized that the process of development
and progress for the race had been intentionally hampered and
fragmented to serve degrading interests of an alien race and those
they selected to act as their buffers for centuries.

Owing to this many people from Africa and throughout the global
Diaspora are mere echoes of an alien culture often oblivious to the
material and spiritual distortions and destruction that have taken
place for them their people and the communities for which they should
be more responsible.

The writings and work of Dr. Love obviously had an impact on Garvey
because he gave consideration while establishing the Garvey Movement
to the views of women and their placement in key positions of the
organization. Mrs. Garvey worked closely with white females such as
Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) to build the groundwork for recognition
and independence as well as liberation of modern western women.

This fact is rarely considered in writings that examine modern female
liberation. It was while living in Jamaica that Dr. Love saw
the fruits of his work as a physician; writer; editor; journalist and
political reformer until his death in Jamaica in 1914.

Love wrote for the Jamaica Advocate (1894-1905). As a paper it
expressed views that were critical of colonial governments. In this
respect the writings of Love in The Advocate became a mirror for the
Negro WorldNews paper, which Dr. Garvey founded. The Negro World was
considered by the United States and European governments to be
seditious material and banned in colonial countries in Africa and
elsewhere.

Through the efforts of Dr. Love, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, as a young man
in Jamaica, became more aware of many of the outstanding Africans of
the day and the past. Garvey read the writings of Dr. Love and would
have paid close attention to his remarks about colonialism and the
partition of Africa; the achievements of John Bruce; Edward Blyden;
Sylvester-Williams; Dubois; Dr. Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee; in
addition to the efforts of the (Black) Baptist Church; African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Africa and elsewhere.

Dr. Love also examined through his writings such social issues as land
reform in Jamaica and Pan Africanism. These ideas obviously stirred
Marcus Garvey to devote his life and work towards building a spiritual
awareness about self-esteem as well as the implications of race and
the uplift of his people.

The activities of Dr. Love and others, in concert with Dr
Garvey’s training as a printer coupled with his exceptionally
fine family background; formed a solid foundation for Garvey’s
future achievements. Through these associations and his travels,
Dr. Garvey was preparing for the mantle of leadership and
statesmanship. In addition he became armed with a growing independent
insight into the needs of Africans on a global basis.

The founding of the UNIA-ACL and its subsequent work was a natural
progression given the background of Dr. Garvey and his critical
insight into colonialism and so-called white superiority.

The organization was involved in extensive development and improvement
of health and social care activities. This emerged, out of necessity,
from the patterns of racial exclusion and Jim Crowism that were
fundamental to colonial relationships in all European countries and
the Americas.

During the historic August 1stto 31st1920 Convention in Harlem New
York the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African
Communities League ratified in Convention The Declaration of Rights of
the Negro Peoples of the World.

At the same time the Office of the Surgeon General was approved the
Director of the Surgeon Generals Office was also appointed. He was
Dr. D.D. Lewis M.D, a Nigerian, and head of the Montreal Division of
the UNIA. The Office of the Surgeon General cooperated with work in
youth, health prevention, hygiene, counseling (men coming from war;
lynching), maternity services, as well as contagious disease control
(TB and sexually transmitted disease).

Mr and Mrs. Garvey and members of the UNIA, frequently in cooperation
with those independent of the UNIA worked diligently to facilitate the
use of black nurses, particularly following World War I and II in both
the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Surgeon General’s Office of the Universal Negro Improvement
Association and African Communities League held overall responsibility
for the work of the Universal African Black Cross Nurses and other
health professionals. The President of the Universal African Black
Cross Nurses was the Hon. Sarah Branch. They were called Black Cross
Nurses because of the way the caps they wore; as part of their
uniforms; were designed. In the centre of the cap was a Black Cross.

This insignia was adopted because these nurses were denied admission
to the Red Cross Nurses (voluntary sector); training in hospitals;
schools and other institutions that trained nurses - because they were
delegated for white nursing students only. This was based on racial
exclusion and eugenics.

When black people worked in hospitals they were regulated to the most
menial and demeaning tasks. This applied, particularly, to the care of
white patients.

All Africans in the health professions in the Americas and Africa
cared for black patients in segregated facilities, often of an
inferior standard, such as a back porch or
cupboard. African patients in the Americas and on the Continent
of Africa were regulated to inappropriate sections of health
facilities and hospitals such as contagious disease wards or areas
that were not compatible to health improvement, irrespective of the
condition or treatment of the patient.

As a rule white nurses and doctors did not care for African
patients. Racial bias and separation as well as the eugenic movement
made this a global policy prior to and during World Wars I and II and
in some parts of the United States until the 70’s.

The Universal African Black Cross Nurses are being used as a reference
for examining the contributions of the Garvey Movement to the global
health and social care of Africans. This is because the Universal
Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League was the
largest organised mass movement ever to address and seek remedies to
the collective challenges confronting the African Continent and the
African Diaspora.

The Challenges

Marcus Garvey’s humanitarian work, lead to the founding of the
Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League
in 1914 in Jamaica. It became popularly known as the U.N.I.A.

Many people termed the U.N.I.A. the ’back to Africa
movement’. This reference did not reflect the detailed
structure of the programme the U.N.I.A. developed for those who wished
to immigrate to or visit Africa.

Although Dr Garvey vigorously encouraged the African Diaspora to
return to Africa this advice was given within the context of a
sustainable programme implemented by trained members of the
U.N.I.A. throughout the organisation. U.N.I.A. officers, at the
highest level, had travelled to Africa with detailed plans to study
how an immigration programme would best be implemented in Africa.
Sanitation requirements, post office; schools; hospital; and other
facilities systematically developed, within a town planning structure,
were designed. Men and women with a range of skills were required to
be pioneers. There was, in the case of Liberia, extensive
communication with the government and at one time
co-operation. Nevertheless Dr. Garvey realised that many black people
would not be suitable for or wish to return to Africa.

Throughout his service to the race Dr Garvey actively warned his
people to, individually and collectively, reappraise their status in
spiritual and world affairs. It was no longer possible, Dr Garvey
believed, to blame the ‘white man’ or anyone else for
failings or doubts. The time had come for the race to develop as free
people not as slaves.

Racial dignity was not to be based on the views or images shaped by
others. History had shown this was folly and destructive to shaping
self-worth as well as redemption of the African continent.

The Right Excellent Dr Marcus Mosiah Garvey said:— Some of us
believe that this slave race of ours will live in the United States of
America and in the future again become law makers for the white race
(our slave masters of sixty years ago). Nothing of the kind has
happened in all human history.

There is not one instance where a slave race living in the same
country (within the same bounds as the race of masters that enslaved
them and being in numbers less than the race of masters) has ever
ruled and governed the masters. It has never been so in history, and
it will never be so in the future. The hidden spirit of America is
determined that it shall never be caring not what hopes and promises
we get.

But history has recorded where a race of slaves through education,
through progress, has risen to the heights where they ruled and
dominated those who once enslaved them, but that race of slaves has
always had to betake itself to their habitats (usually their own
native land) and there, apart from those who once enslaved them,
developed a power of their own, a strength of their own, and in the
higher development of that strength, and that power, they, like
others, have made conquests, and the conquests have sometimes enabled
them to enslave those who once enslaved them.

So for us to encourage the idea that one day Negroes will rise to the
highest in the administration of this white government, is only
encouraging a vain hope.

The only wise thing for us as ambitious Negroes to do, is to organize
the world over, and build up for the race a mighty nation of our own
in Africa. And this race of ours that cannot get recognition and
respect in the country where we were slaves, by using our won ability,
power and genius would develop for ourselves in another country in our
habitat a nation of our own, and be able to send back from that
country,-from that native habitat-to the country where we were once
enslaved, representatives of our own race, that would get as much
respect as any other ambassadors from any other race or nation.

God Almighty created earth and every one of us for a place in the
world, and for the least of us to think that we were created only to
be what we are and not what we can make ourselves, is to impute an
improper motive to the Creator for creating us.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, founder of the Journal of Negro History, wrote
in the (1940), edition of the Journal.

Marcus Garvey died in London-he was educated and learned to think
seriously of the social repression from which his people suffered
there and their untoward status throughout the world. He came to the
United States-and began his ’Back to Africa Movement’ for
the redemption of the race by transplantation to the land of its’
Fathers’To get rid of the evils confronting the Black people in
the western hemisphere.

Whatever may be said about Garvey’s mistakes he cannot be
recorded in history as a fanatic or a fool. His claim to be recorded
in history lies in the fact that he attracted a larger following than
any Negro who has been developed in modern time. Negroes here and
there have been hailed as leaders, the press has given them great
praise, and their friends have sung of their virtues in high tone; but
a thorough analysis of the famous Negro Leaders will disclose the fact
that they owed their prominence mainly to white men who considered
such spokesmen as those persons through whom they could work to keep
the Negro in his place. . .